hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. the "news nation" is following big developing news in the david petraeus resignation and the fallout. the associated press reported his affair with author paula broadwell will be the subtle of a meeting on capitol hill. th there's a chance that petraeus will still have to testify before congress and soon regarding the deadly aattack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. petraeus was one of three witnesses on the agenda for that closed senate hearing, which at this point is still scheduled to happen on capitol hill this thursday. either way, congress could collagen petraeus before them

even as they question why they were kept in the dark about a month-long fbi inquiry that ended his tenure at the country's top spy agency. >> this thing just came so fast and so hard, and since then it's been like peeling an onion. every day another peel comes off, and you see a whole new dimension to this. my concern has actually escalated over the last few days. >> and questions also remain about why the president and the white house were not notified about the scandal surrounding petraeus until late last week. republican congressman eric cantor says he was notified back in october after being contacted by an fbi employee concerned that sensitive information may have been compromised. >> once the fbi realized it was investigating the director of the cia or the cia director came one their focus and scope, i believe at that time they had an

absolute obligation to tell the president. not to protect david petraeus but to protect the president. >> joining any now is nabokov news chief andrea mitchell. let's start off with there's two lines of investigations we know could take place this week aalone. first, the hot one of the last couple of hours, especially on your show, who knew what, when, is how people like to put it. we heard from senator fine steen on your show regarding your concerns. >> her concerns and the concerns also as i understand it of the house republican chair mike rogers, a former fib agent himself is they were not told. they didn't get a heads-up from the fbi or the dni or the head of national intelligence, general clapper. they didn't get a heads-up from the nsc or the white house. the first thing they know on friday, general petraeus is resigning, and the president's accepting his resignation without knowing there's months and months of an investigation into a possible compromising of

national security. their argument is that as the oversight committee, at least the chairpersons and vice-chairs, four of them, should have been told. >> pete williams, our legal correspondent for nbc news was on with you. he was also on with chuck todd this morning, and he questioned whether the fbi was obligated to share this information with the cia or even members of congress regarding the investigation, especially in its infancy and when they found out that no crime had been xhicommitted. >> that is the dilemma of fbi. there's that long history of the fbi going back to j. edgar hoover where he was using these kinds of secrets that he was uncovering for political blackmail, if you will. now you have the fbi investigating accidentally stumbling into something where the investigation turns briefly until they shut it down to the

director of central intelligence. that's a big deal. the question is, how do you handle it? do you just shut it down once you realize there's no criminality involved or it's a personal indiscretion, or do you report it up the change of command? that's the question that is going to be raised. >> of course, i think the larger question, though, still remains, the investigation regarding benghazi. this was ongoing before this scandal and if this affair was revealed, you have general petraeus making a trip to libya two weeks before all of this was revealed. how can there be a hearing and he not participate in this hearing, andrea? >> well, i think what senator feinstein has come to conclude is he has to participate. perhaps not at this first session. this is not an option session but a closed session. but mike morrell, the acting cia direct can come and present as will matthew olson the head of the counterterrorism center and general clapper and others from the intelligence community.

then at an appropriate time they can all bring in general petraeus. i think they're going to demand it. >> thank you very much. excellent reporting all weekend long on this. joining me is jim frederick from "time" magazine and michael smirk smir smirkonish. you're familiar with general petraeus and the buy graph ever as well. how do you have a hearing on benghazi and not have general petraeus participate, especially because he was on the ground as part of the investigation? he has to show up. >> i think it's a foregone conclude that one way or another he has to show up maybe not this week or next. i think one way or another he has to participate. as andrea said it's not an open question anymore. it's a matter of if. >> what do you know about broadwell, the biographier here.

>> she had a great reputation. spent a decade in active duty military. by all accounts was a storybook home life. met petraeus in 2006 at harvard, decided to do her dishe certificate tags and turned into a baook about him. there's conflicting reports about when exactly the aaffair started. ingts going to be interesting the way the woman in the aaaffair is portrayed where hard charging and driven in a man like petraeus is someone unkwef cali a good thing. when it comes to broadwell, it's strange. >> you have people commenting on her aattire in some of the video and her doing pushups. she's scrutinized in a way that probably is a little concerning when you look at the dynamic. the man is the victim and the woman of vixen. i want to say what she was at the university of denver. this is back in october. let's play it. >> a lot of you have heard

thshgs but the cia annex had taken a couple of libyan militia members prisoner, and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to get the prisoners back. that's still vetted. >> that's her commenting on benghazi. forget the relationship and scandal and all of that. again, do her comments there need to the scrutinized more if this woman was trying to allegedly access his e-mail and knew her whereabouts, how can this investigation be zipped up and done and over. isn't that of concern? >> it's of concern. i'm glad you highlighted this clip, because that was a comment where people said, where did this come sfr? there's double-scrutiny on it. it will go one of two ways. this is either going to be an affair, an indiscretion that doesn't impact national security and bygones be bygones or were national secrets and security implications -- did they have access to that. >> was there something compromised here? >> then we have a real national security situation. congressman cantor released a

statement regarding the petraeus investigation. he said he was contacted by the fbi, an employee concerned that sensitive, classified information may have been compromised and director mueller was aware this and the potential risk to national security. this time line is intriguing for many reasons. congressman peter king was on. he said he was concerned about the president, and that the president was not privied to this information until the last minute, the 11th hour of this. what are the red flags for you right now? >> well, i think the distinction that needs to be made is whether this is a matter of privacy only or was it a matter of national security? if it was a matter from general petraeus' standpoint of a privacy indiscretion, i can more easily understand how members of the congress and the president were not told at a ah-so sooner point. this is a guy who made a tragic error, but it's a shame that

someone so talented is now in the process of being drummed out of service to his government. i think he has a lot to offer. >> perhaps he will offer it again in some capacity, but the current issues you pointed out are about national security. you had congressman king on earlier. he said, listen, this is the head of the cia, and he did not say it in a dispar rajjing way. his reference was a comparison to the commerce secretary. we're not discussing that. we're discussing the head of the cia, and when you have this individual in october in denver referring to information regarding the benghazi attack, enough so that experts who have been investigating benghazi, their eyebrow raised because of the information she was revealing in this speech, why wouldn't it all come down to not his personal life -- that's between he and his wife, to some degree, but he's the head of the cia and you have this huge investigation going on. >> i guess what i'm saying and i'm hearing this from a number of listeners because as you can

imagine this is all the talk today. people are saying, you can't have the head of the cia in that position with this indiscretion because he's subject to blackmail. it occurred to me, well, now that it's out in the open, imagine if general petraeus had a press conference ten days ago and said i have something very embarrassing to tell the word, and that is that i've been carrying on this elicit relationship. now there's out on the table. there's nothing to blackmail him from. from his perspective -- >> we don't know what she had access to. under these allegations she sent allegedly harassing e-mails to another person. that might denote a person who is not stable. we don't know what she accessed or was trying to access. there are still so many other unanswered question, not regarding he's an honorable man and a man worthy of the permissions and accolades he received, we don't know the other factor. this other individual he was involved with. >> you are connect in that regard. we still are in a stage where

there's more unknown than known. all i can tell is everybody wants the answers. >> you got that right, michael. that's why he will have to show up and do more than a statement, a touching letter but nevertheless just a letter to his staff. thank you very much, michael. thank you as well jim. great pleasure. still ahead on "news nation," coming to terms on immigration. >> it's one thing to shoot yourself in the foot. just don't reload the gun. i intend not to reload this gun when it comes to hispanic. >> what else did senator graham say? still licking their wounds from an election night trouncing. >> if you had said to me three weeks ago, mitt romney would get fewer votes than john mccain, and it looks like he's 2 million fewer, i would have been dumbfounded. >> dumbfounded. is all this a sign that republicans are now ready to meet in the middle on issues like immigration and taxes? will they move faster on immigration? you can join our conversation on

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welcome back. how to rebrand the gop is the subject of a new series of polls and focus groups and outreach meetings conducted by the rny. the republican national committee. they don't think their party needs fixing. >> i don't think it's about the republican party needing to become more moderate. i believe it's the republican party becoming more modern. >> karl rove, whose cross roads super-pac poured in $300 million if you were counting to help republican candidates told "the

washington post," quote, it's the way of politics that you're going to have some good years and you're going to have some bad years. joins us now is nia hernson and b.e.t. host keith boykin. karl rove ushgs going to win some and lose some, you have good years and bad years. is he trying to minimize the sting? >> this was a stunningly bad year. they lost the presidency and lost seats the in the senate and they loth in the house. more people voted for democratic candidates in the house than for republican candidates. the idea that this is not a sign of against their mandate makes no sense. they've got to compromise. they can't just continue doing the same thing if they want to be competitive in the future. >> what's so interesting, lindsey graham was on, and he was talking about immigration. i got to play his comment, and i want your thoughts on the other side of it. let's play it, please. >> it's one thing to shoot

yourself in the foot. just don't reload the gun. i intend not to reload this gun whether it comes to hispanic. i intend to tear down this wall and pass an immigration reform bill that's an american solution to an american problem, but we have nobody to blame but ourselves when it comes to losing hispanics. >> i intend to tear this wall down, and it's an american solution to an american problem. where were those comments during the republican primary when governor rick perry was all but run off the stage. again, this was before he couldn't name the three agencies that he would eliminate. where was this sentiment then, and will it work on latino voters? >> well, i think that sent want was certainly behind the scenes. you had moderate republicans cheering rick perry because of his approach to latinos in texas, his familiarity with that important group. again, he made a big gaffe, and you saw mitt romney really try to run to the right of rick perry and talk about self-deportation and things like

that. the problem, i think, for lindsey graham is he's going to face a primary challenge in south carolina. i'm from south carolina. those folks down there see lindsey graham as a bit of a rhinos. he has to be careful there. there is this groundswell in the republican party that looks at the numbers. by 2050, 30% of america will r latinos. they have to work on laws but on their tone in terms of how they talk about latinos. >> do you believe senator graham would dip his toe in the water if he didn't try to gauge the temperature and feel there's some momentum even from the most conservative in his party? listen, i believe sean hannity has said he quote-unquote evolved if the shepherd speaks, then perhaps the sheep will follow. >> that's right. i think that was the quickest evolution i've ever seen. they're, of course, looking aat

this map that shows this grand shift demographically and a real edge for democrats. i think you're right. there are elements that want to deal with this. it's a turn to the past when you had people like john mccain who put forward a comprehensive immigration reform and bowed to the right wing elements of the party. there's a real move. you'll see marco rubio make movement as well. >> it brings me back, keith, to the sincerity of the move. when the president came out in support of same-sex marriage, republicans said this was expedient for him because he needed that voting bloc and he needed that group of donors to come to his side. let me play what one of romney's foreign advisers, carlos gutierrez said about romney not becoming a more moderate candidate soon enough. let me play it. >> mitt romney made some mistakes. i think mitt romney's comment is a symptom. i think the disease is the fact that the far right of the party

controls the primary process. >> so the primary process he referred to as a disease and infection, if you will, if you're trying to cure the patient and if we're going to continue with this comparison here. what do they do with immigration? the president pledged that's on the top of the agenda. the republicans want to pick up steam from it. what do they do? >> i think that's right. a few minutes before i came out air, i was watching my twitter feed. i saw a tweet from larry kudlow from cnbc. larry says the republicans have to give up their position on immigration and move for reform, and the reason why he said is because they're going to lose the next election if they don't do this. >> and the ones after that. >> it's about political expedient see. that's not a guarantee they're going to win. latinos don't just care about immigration but jobs and health care and education. there are a number of issues of concern to them. nobody is talking about african-americans. they're not talking about asian-americans that voted 70% for obama, too. >> i believe it was 80% for

obama. >> that's the fastest growing segment of the population. yes, they're slowly coming up to the reality they have to do something about latinos, but what about the rest of people in the country? what are they doing about women in the country? there's a diverse nation out here that they don't even recognize except for one chunk, the latino community. >> they believe they will get the instant numbers, if you can lure over to your side, that would the fastest and most immediate impact in the next couple of elections. >> it's a political tactic. it's not necessarily a substantive move. >> real quick. we're almost out of time. grover norquist was on. i want your response to this. he commented on romney's loss. let's play it quickly, please. >> well, we just had an election, and the house of representatives was elected, committed to keeping taxes low. the president was committed, elected on the basis that he was not romney and romney was a

poopy head and you should vote against romney. he won by two points, but he didn't make the case to have higher taxes and higher spending. he kind of sounded like the opposite. >> does grover norquist have any influence in this tax debate as we move aahead with the fiscal cliff or whatever you like to call it that is looming? nia? >> i think he does certainly from the far right of his party. you saw boehner say that the party wants to be led. they want to be led as americans, not republicans. again, i think you have somebody like bill crystal who comes out and says republicans need to be more flexible in terms of talking about tax reform. i think norquist in that clip showed a real misreading of what the election was really about. i prish his use of the word -- >> an odd choice of words. >> poopy head. >> they got a thumping here. this is the first president since ronald reagan to win the popular vote in two consecutive elections. they're trying to deny his legitimacy still. >> not all.

>> grover norquist is. >> and speaker boehner has said they're ready to be led. >> thank god for one reasonable person. >> he says he's the most reasonable. >> we'll see what happens in january, though. he has that radical right wing tea party caucus to deal with in the house. i want to see them come to grips with reality. >> great pleasure having you both on. as people continue to suffer in the wake of hurricane sandy, thousands are homeless and without power. the american red cross is trying to push back against criticism from storm victims. >> they take people's hard-working money to assist people, and then when push comes to shove, they don't assist. >> so the red cross is not disputing that, but also calls its response, quote, flawless. many of the people you're looking at in that video do not believe the response has been flawless. we'll talk with nbc news senior investigative correspondent lisa myers regarding the red cross backlash that's going on. congressman allen west loses re-election, but he's not going

down. even after a recount. why the tea party republican is holding out hope, and what is actually giving him hope? it's the most expensive house race ever. it's just one of the things we thought you should know. kathleen bailey and susan cade are encouraging customers to shop local. they created the ladies night in the magnolia park area in burbank, california to boost sales by staying open late. on november 24th it's the third annual small business saturday. have a good night. here you go. you, too. i'm going to dream about that steak. i'm going to dream about that tiramisu.

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with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. information on my phone. connection to doctors who get where i'm from. and tools to estimate what my care may cost. so i never missed a beat. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. welcome back. two weeks after hurricane sandy battered the northeast, more than 90,000 people are still without power. the majority of people are in long island, new york where residents protested the local utility company's response over the week general. there's growing criticism today over the response to the storm by the american red cross, which has received $170 million in donations to help victims. nbc's senior investigative correspondent lisa myers joins us now with the details. what is at the heart of the

complaints from these people who we can't stress enough are still greatly suffering from the impact of this storm? >> tamron, as you noted before the break, the red cross is pushing back. the ceo of the red cross told us its operations in the wake of sandy have been near flawless. we heard a very different story this weekend from angry and in some cases desperate residents in hard-hit areas of new york. they say the nation's preeminent relief organization is pretty much missing in action. two weeks after sandy hit, residents of breezy point, new york, still wonder if more help will ever arrive. >> we haven't seen red cross at all. red cross hasn't offered any assistance up until yesterday. >> carrie said sheez donated to the red cross before, and is very disappointed. >> they take people's hard-working money to assist people, and when push comes to sho, they don't assist. >> her neighbors all wonder what happened. >> the red cross, you know, they

normally are a wonderful organization. it's just that they're not here. >> ann marie willis coordinates volunteers in the community and rates the red cross performance here poor. >> they need help with everything from housing to just hold them, say you're going to be okay. you'll get through this. we need everything. i know the red cross has it. >> even in areas with a greater red cross presence, like brooklyn, there is criticism. >> they were all saying too late. way too late. we needed help back then, and now people are sick and people are in trouble. >> red cross ceo gail mcgovern depends what she calls a massive relief effort. 5700 volunteers, hundreds of emergency vehicles serving 4.8 million meals and snacks. shelters, warm clothing, health services. so what grade would you give the red cross so far? >> i think that we are near flawless so far in this

operation. i'm just so proud of everything that we are doing on the ground. it is incredible. >> one truck offered sandwiches with a blow horn? it's disgusting. >> the red cross has drawn fire in the past. it was aaccused of a chaotic and uneven sfons to katrina and being too slow to spend money in haiti. as for sandy, mcgovern says it poses unique challenges, victims stacked in high rises, a storm area the size of europe. now, we asked mcgovern why if her dwrup is doing such a great job so many are upset with the red cross. she says there are a lot of people hurting and hearing the cries for help and will respond aas quickly as possible. by the way, the red cross does promise that 91 cents of every dollar donated will be spent to help victims of this storm, tamron. >> thank you very much for that report. and a major overhaul at the

world's largest broadcaster. the top two officials at london's bbc now out in the wake of a child sex abuse scandal that is epic. we'll get the latest from london on what's happening there. plus, an interesting question from our first read team. here's the question. is the independent vote overrated? what is your answer? it is certainly worth asking after governor romney won among independents but lost the election. don't tell us your answer. after the break tell us and scream it at the television when mark murray joins us with the answers to prove why they may be overrated. be sure to check out the "news nation" tumblr page. you'll find behind the scene pictures at ne newsnation.tumblr.com. welcome aboard! [ chuckles ]

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efforts to aavert the fiscal cliff move into high gear this week. congress returns tomorrow, and president obama will meet with labor and progressive leaders. the president will host leaders of the business community on wednesday to try and enlist support before hosting congressional leaders from both parties on friday at the white house. in the meantime, more republicans are sounding open to compromise. >> i think there is a deal. look, the ying and yang of this is we know there has to be revenues, and i haven't met a wealthy republican or democrat in tennessee that's not willing to contribute more as long as they know we've solved the problems. >> joining me now is washington correspondent -- >> a little bitz on millionaires. i don't understand why republicans don't take obama's offer to freeze taxes for everyone below 250,000. >> now joining me is ayman

javers. you have two comments. top conservatives saying they don't know any rich republican who wouldn't be willing to put more money on the table. i have to ask you about the president's strategy brifg in business leaders. this is a smart strategy and getting some of those people that many aassume would support romney and maybe donated to him, wall street fellows, who could be helpful to the president now. >> there's a big movement among some business leaders to push for any deal on the fiscal cliff between now and the end of the year. although they worry about the prospect of increased taxes, they're worried about the prospect over the fiscal cliff and the damage to the u.s. economy. there are business groups raising money to run tv ads, for example, pushing for congress to come to a deal here. so the president has an ally there in some business folks that he maybe didn't have on the campaign trail now that attention is turning to this fight. it's simply good politics for the president to meet with the progressive folks and the ceos

and as many people as he can so when they get to the point of a deal, he can say, look, i listened to all perspectives here. >> we heard from the president on friday, and he did not say this was a mandate. certainly articulated that the american people are behind him, hence the reason that he won re-election. here we are with speaker boehner saying they're waiting to be led and all lot more xroez mizing comments. should we be optimistic and assume this deal will be done in a different way meaning we're not waiting until the 11th hour. >> i don't think you can say that. washington loves to wait until the 11th hour, because that's when the negotiating is done with with a lot of pressure. the 11th hour is where we might be headed. there's some reason for optimism. you heard speaker boehner last week and pay particular attention to what he said. he said that republicans are opposed to any increases in tax

rates. what he didn't say was that republicans are opposed to any increases in taxes. what he's talking about is a deal where they lower the top rates, but they broaden out the base of the tax system by eliminating a lot of deductions and other things, special interest loopholes so-called to actually raise the amount of tax revenue that comes into the u.s. government, even though the rates themselves have gone down. listen to boehner talking. as long as he's talking about not raising tax rates, we're on a path to a deal. if he starts talking about not raising taxes, maybe we're off the track. >> all right. we'll look for keywords. thank you very much. i know we'll talk with you probably every day including the 11th hour when this is finally done. >> happy to do it. >> on lessons learned from last week's election, our first read team asks, is the independent vote overrated? what do you think? they noted that romney won the independent vote 50/45. joining me now is mark murray.

you and your team don't just point to mitt romney losing. others have lost banking on the independent voter. >> when we look at a poll or exit poll, are you winning independent voters? that's seen as winning the middle of the electorate, the people who decide a presidential contest. as you alluded to, in two of the last three presidential elections, the candidate who ended up winning the independent vote ended up losing the presidential contest. john kerry in 2004 won it by 1 percentage point, and then mitt romney in this election just last week won it by 5 percentage points but lost. it raises the question, you know, it's always good to win independent voters, but it might not determinative of an election. >> what is the lesson learned here. it's great to consider those that are independent, they're not strongly tied to one aparty or the other. if they're not the difference maker, not that they should be ignored, but how much do you play to them? >> the difference maker seems to

be in all the elections the party identification. having democrats or republicans more than the opposition, that's a very good indication who is going to end up winning an election. the other thing is how do you define "independents"? are they right down the middle and swing from one election to another? or as the theory goes, when the political wins are against their party, they're republican, they're not happy with the republican party. they say i'm going to call myself an independent because i'm angry with what's going on the last two or three years, they vote for the republican candidate. it doesn't tell you this person is necessarily a swing voter. >> how does that factor into this? you have all the republicans trying to figure out what went wrong this time around. the great pivot that was made by governor romney from the primary to the general election, particularly in the debates that we witnessed, even allegedly stymieing the president on the first one, the quick change made all for independent voters? >> that was for the middle of

the electorate. there's a difference between the middle of the electorate and independent voters. clearly, romney did make that pivot there. what i found interesting, tamron, is that republicans and we look at every survey and said look, we're winning independent voters, and that's whether it was an ohio survey or national survey, as we found out according to the exit polls. they did win the independent voters but lost the presidential election. it's important to note that winning the independent vote doesn't mean you win a presidential election. >> that makes perfect sense. i'm going to throw a wildcard at you because of our close ties to texas. this immigration comment from senator lindsey graham, that he's ready to go all in on immigration reform, the president has made his pledge to the latino community in his first term and certainly now in his second term. might we see a speeding up of this conversation? >> it certainly looks that way. of course, getting legislation done, as we've seen over the last several years, is a lot easier said than done. with john mccain, lindsey

graham, people saying we need immigration reform done, that is a very good sign for advocates of this as well as the white house that want to get this particularly delivered to latino voters who voted 7-1 for president obama. they probably feel like they need to give something back to the latino community. >> mark murray, thank you very much for going with the flow. appreciate it. take care. today is the federal holiday, as you know, for veterans day. 1 in 12 american adults are vets, and yesterday the president and first lady paid tribute to our nation's war heroes at arlington national cemetery. today u.s. veterans number around 22 million and they include 1.5 million women. this year a record number of iraq and afghanistan vets are headed to the house of representatives. joining me now is hawaii representative elect chelsea gabbert who is one of the first female combat veterans to be elected. congratulations and thank you for your stfs to this country. >> thank you. it's an honor to be here and to really celebrate and represent

the many, many women who wear the uniform who have worn the uniform and served at one time or another. and to have the opportunity it to serve as their voice going into congress. >> when you say serve as their voice and advocate, so many people said in the past if more lawmakers had served this nation and more of their children that we would have a different perspective. there would not be what i believe some voters see as a callousness or readiness to jump in when your lives are not at stake. >> i can only speak for myself, and i appreciate the experience that i've had serving in two deployments to the middle east because i do understand firsthand what the cost of war truly is on many different levels. speaking specifically about women, women veterans, women who serve, one of my best friends who i went to iraq with left her 6-month-old son at home with her husband. her first born child. seeing what kinds of impacts it has on mothers and grandmothers, daughters, sisters, and then

also understanding from a human perspective the price, the cost of war that the toll takes on all of ourselves troops, not only while they're there and those who pay the ultimate sacrifice, but those who come home and how long it takes to recover from being in that environment. >> and the recovery, many facets, when you talk about women. i can't imagine being reintroduced to my child. if a baby is six months old, that is an introduction all over again. you come back and face the possibility of unemployment. the unemployment rate is 6.3. that's below the national average, but gut wrenching when you just came back from war. >> it's such a different experience that i think unfortunately a lot of america cannot relate to directly, and i think it's an important message for us to carry about the value these veterans bring back with them from these experiences. that it's not just helping them, but it's actually empowering them to continue to be the selfless servant leaders they

have been overseas and they have been wearing the uniform. when you think about it, any organization would love to have someone trained to work in a high-pressure environment who can make decisions, be a member of a team, put the mission before self. discipline, perseverance, all of these different assets. the most important one is veterans put their lives on the line for a greater cause. to go in with that selfless attitude, i think, is really what we need most now in our country as a whole. >> here you're serving your country in a different way, but even still very important. being one of our nation's leaders. it's a great pleasure to have you on, and it's an honor to be in your presence. on a lighter note, i've never smelled someone who smelled to amazing in my entire life. you said it was your lei. >> someone gave it to me yesterday before i got on the

plane and took a red eye here. imted to ware it until it can't be worn anymore and share the beautiful smell with everyone. >> god bless you. we'll be right back, but first, there's a lot going on today. here's some things we thought you should know. florida congressman allen west is not gifg up the fight. despite a recount that gave his democratic opponent patrick murphy a 2,000-vote lead, west is calling the recount process -- wait for it -- a sham, and he's vows to pursue any legal means at his disposal. karl rove is hearing from bart simpson after his refusal to concede ohio to president obama on election night. on the popular show last night, bart is seen writing i will not concede the election until karl rove giving me permission. you see it at the bottom. those are the things we want you to know and seechlt . [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles

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welcome back. a major crisis for one of the world's most respected journalistic organizations, the bbc. a number of top executives have stepped down as a result of the broadcaster's handling of sex allegations surrounding one of its former stars. this guy, jimmy seville and today criticism has erupted over the financial settlement given to an executive despite being in the job for just 54 days. nbc's jim maceda is in london. before we get to the payout, jim, obviously pe people still stunned trying to digest what happened there. >> tamron, that's right. it gets very complicated because there are two scandals and two investigations that really overlap each other. so in fact so complicated that today the bbc's director of news and her deputy director both stepped aside so they could

focus entirely on these investigations. you mentioned the sex abuse allegations of one of really bbc's biggest star, the late jimmy seville. the flagship investigative program is called "news night" canceled a report on the very allegations last year, triggering calls of a cover-up. much more recently some victims of his alleged abuse actually went public. another huge mistake by the bbc. at the beginning of november, "news night" yet again. it aired a report suggesting that a number of influential british men had effectively run a pedophile ring. without menging any names, the report showed an alleged victim on camera who said he'd been abused back in the 1970s and '80s by a prominent politician in margaret thatcher's government. turns out the victim later aadmitted after seeing a photo he'd made a mistake. the damage was done. the politician named lord

mccalpine is now suing the bbc. you have two major scandals and calls for the bbc to be dismantled. so far the british government is not going for that. it wants an overhaul, but it's still supporting the bbc, which, of course, over decades has been the voice of britain in many ways. this is really a huge scandal over here. back to you. >> jim, thank you very much. great pleasure having you on. the difficult report that you had to cover there. thank you. still ahead on our "news nation" gut check, first new york banned giant sodas. now l.a., have you heard? they're encouraging meatless mondays. officials cite health reasons for abandoned meat, including meatloaf on mondays, and it's all veggies on monday. do you think this is going too far? you can join our conversation on "news nation," and on facebook we're at facebook.com/newsnation.

you can tell us what you think about meatless mondays. [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again. time for citi price rewind. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. have a super sparkly day! ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. buy now. save later.

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they have proved a resolution to decare all mondays in the city meatless monday. it's to cut down on meat consumption for health and environmental reasons. according to reports, the idea of meatless mondays was started in 2003 and is associated with johns hopkins university. they show a high-meat diet is linked to health problems like colon cancer and heart disease. the american meat institute is it not happy and issued a statement saying if the sponsors of the meatless monday campaign were concerned about nutrition, they'd host more veggie mondays. instead they target for a

reduction on a food that is already consumed in the proper amount and tas simply irresponsible. the meatless monday idea is strictly voluntarily. you won't get in trouble. what does your get tell you, gut speaking of meat? do you think meatless mondays are, quote, simply irresponsible as stated and the campaign should host veggie mondays, maybe alternate? go to facebook.com/newsnation. full scloez you're. i eat a burger pretty much every day. that does it for this edition of "news nation." i'm tamron hall. "the cycle" is up next. ♪ [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again. medicare open enrollment. time to compare plans and costs. you don't have to make changes. but it never hurts to see if you can find better coverage,

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